Posts Tagged ‘jQuery’

Lazy loading is a common software design pattern that defers the initialization of objects until they are needed. Lazy loading images started to become popular on the web back in 2007, when Mika Tuupola drew inspiration from the YUI ImageLoader utility and released a jQuery plugin. Since then, it’s become a popular technique to optimize page loading and the user experience. In this article I will discuss why we should and shouldn't use Lazy Load, and how to implement it.

Images make up over 60% of an average page’s size, according to HTTP Archive. Images on a web page would be rendered once they are available. Without lazy loading, this could lead to a lot of data traffic that is not immediately necessary (such as images outside of the viewport) and longer waiting times. The problem? Visitors are not patient at all. By lazy loading, images outside of the viewport are loaded only when they would be visible to the user, thus saving valuable data and time.

There’s a false belief in the web development community that CSS animation is the only performant way to animate on the web. This myth has coerced many developers to abandon JavaScript-based animation altogether, thereby (1) forcing themselves to manage complex UI interaction within style sheets, (2) locking themselves out of supporting Internet Explorer 8 and 9, and (3) forgoing the beautiful motion design physics that are possible only with JavaScript.

Reality check: JavaScript-based animation is often as fast as CSS-based animation — sometimes even faster. CSS animation only appears to have a leg up because it’s typically compared to jQuery’s $.animate(), which is, in fact, very slow. However, JavaScript animation libraries that bypass jQuery deliver incredible performance by avoiding DOM manipulation as much as possible. These libraries can be up to 20 times faster than jQuery.

Scrolling effects have been around in web design for years now, and while many plugins are available to choose from, only a few have the simplicity and light weight that most developers and designers are looking for. Most plugins I’ve seen try to do too many things, which makes it difficult for designers and developers to integrate them in their projects.

Not long ago, Apple introduced the iPhone 5S, which was accompanied by a presentation website on which visitors were guided down sections of a page and whose messaging was reduced to one key function per section. I found this to be a great way to present a product, minimizing the risk of visitors accidentally scrolling past key information.

Front-end development is no longer about individual frameworks. Tools are available — we merely have to choose. To make the right choices for your project, you need to start with a general approach, or methodology. But most methodologies have been created by big companies? Are they still useful for small companies, or do we need to reinvent them at a small scale?

You probably already know of BEM, one of those methodologies developed by a big company — namely, Yandex. BEM posits that three basic entities (blocks, elements and modifiers) are enough to define how to author HTML and CSS, structure code and components, describe interfaces and scale a project up to an industry-leading service.

Have you ever come across a bit of JavaScript like $(".cta").click(function(){}) and thought, “What the $('#x') is that” If it looks like gibberish to you, then please read on. If you think that snippet of code couldn’t possibly be real, then please browse some jQuery examples. They are full of such constructions.

This article covers the key concepts that underly such intimidating fragments of code, but we’ll start with a longer example, based on an example for animating a square.

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